Chapter 5
CHAPTER FIVE
ADAM
There was a certain level of annoyance that the girl tried to claim another last name as her own. The same last name as the father, who clearly didn’t try hard enough to stop me from taking her. The father who would have married her off to a boy, not a man, who wouldn’t have protected her if her life was in danger.
It never was in danger. We don’t kill women, at least not unless they strike first. Still, there was no possible way her father knew that. He should have done more, should have fought my men and broken free to save his daughter. But he didn’t.
Ferrari. Another name I shouldn’t belong to.
That was where she was wrong. If the name found her, then she belonged here. Just like everyone in this room, and every guard on this property. I just wasn’t sure in which capacity she belonged just yet.
I watched her for another moment before I pulled out a chair and sat. Annoyance already tugged at me as I took her in, wearing clothes that clearly weren’t hers. I’d talk to my men later about that. It wasn’t her fault, I suppose, but it didn’t mean I liked it.
Struggling for words, any words when I didn’t want to be here, I finally mumbled, “I hope you found your room well.”
She didn’t respond, and that was fine because I wasn’t in the talkative mood. I served my food. Mercer and Ace did the same while she watched us, not attempting to fill her empty plate. I ate a few forkfuls of biscuits and gravy before I bothered speaking again. “Eat.”
“I’m not that hungry.” Her voice was so quiet, so soft, it didn’t fit into a house of all men.
“Eat anyway,” I ordered.
“I—“
I didn’t want to hear her excuses. If you sit at my table, you eat a meal. It’s as simple as that. I wasn’t dealing with any of those fucking rebellious hunger strikes, or disobedience. She was only hurting herself, and I couldn’t have that.
“I said eat.”
Her eyes welled up with tears and a whimper escaped, but she didn’t argue further. She reached over, taking a biscuit from the tray and adding some fruit to her plate. It was still a practically empty plate, but I guess that would be her problem come lunch time. At least I could leave, knowing she was provided for.
“I’m going into the office today.” I spoke to no one in particular. I didn’t miss the pause from Ace and Mercer at my announcement.
Mercer pushed food around his plate. “You rarely go into the office.”
I caught the hidden meaning. He was accusing me of avoidance, of using work I preferred to do at home as a scapegoat in order to not have to deal with the situation. He’d be right. I’d rather go into the office, rather hide away in the smoky casino, where noises were at an all-time high and drunks roamed the halls, than be in the same room as the girl at my table.
“I think it’s time I start. I could use an improvement in my work ethic, don’t you agree?” I pierced him with my stare, daring him to challenge me.
He didn’t break eye contact as he slowly formed an answer. “Now’s better than never, I suppose. Will she be okay here by herself?”
I spared the girl the barest of glances because I didn’t know. Did I even care? “I’ll send Drew and Max in to watch her.”
Watch her, like she was a threat and not a wife.
“I could stay behind,” he offered.
“You’re needed. You have a meeting at noon,” Ace reminded him.
A meeting. I nearly snorted at that. No meeting that involved Mercer was ever a good one. In fact, it usually ended with stained floors and a shit ton of clean up.
His body remained stiff as he let his eyes travel to the side. “I can reschedule.”
“It’s probably best that you don’t.” Ace cleared his throat. “This meeting is worth two hundred thousand. It’s been a long time in the making.”
A long time of some low life asshole taking out a tab he couldn’t repay. A long time filled with warnings and threats and false promises of repayment. A long time of letting a fucker's lies slide until there was absolutely no excuse but to collect our money or collect his life.
The girl cleared her throat even as she kept her eyes trained on the orange slice on her plate like it was the most interesting thing in the room. When she didn’t speak, I asked her, “Was there something you wished to say, wife?”
The title slipped from my lips naturally, without thought, but the word made me uncomfortable. She bit her lip before slowly bringing her eyes up to meet mine. “No, sir.”
Were her hands shaking just from my appraisal?
“You can speak openly with any man in this room. Just because you are here under unique circumstances doesn’t mean you aren’t valued.”
There. That should be good enough to let her know not to be afraid of us. Not to be afraid of me.
She nodded her understanding, but no words were spoken, so I turned my attention back to Ace. “Inform the staff we’ve got an addition. Let them know they are to give her anything she wants within reason.”
Within reason, because I’m not about to get my eyes gouged out by a fire pick because our staff was careless in trusting my new little wife. “I’ll do it first thing.”
I turned my attention to Mercer. “Bump the meeting up to eleven. I wish to attend.”
I could use the distraction. It would be good for me to get out some of this pent-up tension that had been coiling in my body since yesterday, but noon was no good for me. As much as I liked to operate out of view of the law, I had legitimate business commitments to honor.
Another sound came from the girl. My head snapped toward her. “Speak.” She didn’t look up, didn’t acknowledge my order. The blatant disregard for my authority fueled the anger that had bubbled up since the whole situation that combined her life with my own. My palm slammed onto the table, causing the candle holder to tip and the plates to rattle. “I said speak!”
Mercer stood, ready to protect the girl. Didn’t he know I’d never hurt her? Had I changed so much over the years, become too unpredictable, that he questioned that one core value I vowed never to change?
Her eyes finally rose. The memorizing shade of green entrapped me for a moment while Mercer slowly lowered back to his chair. Her lip quivered, and I wasn’t sure if she was going to cry. I couldn’t handle tears. My life was complicated enough right now without them. But then she pulled her shoulders back, her lip steadied, and she found her voice.
“It’s just-“ She licked her lips, and I wondered for the briefest of moments if they tasted like the orange she just ate. Then I remembered I didn’t care. I shouldn’t care. She was mine in name, but I didn’t want her. “It’s just that you speak in code around me as if I’m na?ve enough to believe that men like you spend your day in meetings, when I watched the death pile up around me in the church less than twenty-four hours ago.”
“We have meetings.” Mercer tried to soothe out the tiny fibs we told to appear normal.
She stared at him for a moment, something passing between them. The tiniest bit of softness in her eyes that made me jealous of my best friend. “You, I’d believe, had a real meeting.” The left side of his lip quirked up before she continued. “Them, not so much.”
Ace huffed, not willing to waste a single word to dispute, even if he was the one in this room with a civil meeting today and not the bloodthirsty bastard that Mercer was. How had he convinced the girl in such a short time that he was a gentle when he was the one with the bloodiest of hands and the darkest of souls? It made no sense. But if she wanted to believe I was the monster my scars portrayed me to be, then I’d let her. I owed her no explanation of my life.
“The priest will come this evening for the final papers to be signed. Be ready and don’t make a scene. He won’t help you.” I leaned back in the chair, grabbing the cup of coffee Mercer had placed in front of me and taking a giant sip.
“We never filed for a license.” Her chin tilted up defiantly.
“You think a person like me, with money and power, hasn’t already gotten around that?”
There was the smallest deflation in her confidence, though she tried to hide it. “You’ve made your point. You can let me go now. Drop me off at the nearest airport. Send me away.”
I leaned forward, bracing with an arm on the table. “What about your father?”
There was no thought to her answer, not a single second of hesitation. “I’d never go back there.”
Interesting. What had he done? Did I dare ask? I was never afraid of anything, but somehow my gut told me to fear her reason why. I was a coward. I didn’t ask, though I knew I’d be digging into the reason the second I got to the casino. “And the groom?”
“What about him?” If I had thought her face was cold with the mention of her father, then her face was like ice mentioning the boy.
“Did you love him?”
She blinked a few times, as if my question of whether she was at the altar with a boy for the reason of love was so outrageous she couldn’t quite grasp it. “I didn’t even know him.”
That fact was equally interesting. “Then why did you agree to marry him?”
“Why would you assume I had a choice? Isn’t it clear that no one asks me what I want?”
I shrugged, pretending to be indifferent. “You may not want to be here, little Belle.” Why did the nickname feel so right rolling off my tongue? “But if you didn’t want to go with your father, and you didn’t want to marry into the Accardo family, then why not just accept your position here? There is no need to fight us. You’re only the prisoner you create.”
“But I’m still a prisoner,” she whispered.
“We all have chains. Prove to me I can loosen yours.”
We stared at each other. Neither wanted to blink first. Both of us were equally stubborn, but only I had the power to back up my stubbornness. She could challenge me all day and I wouldn’t budge. Why would I? I had nothing to lose. But for her, she had absolutely everything.
She gave in first, looking down at the plate she hardly touched. “And when you kick me out, toss me away like you’re bound to do, do you promise to at least send me off with more than the clothes on my back?”
“Which is it? Do you want to leave or stay?” I challenged because she was giving me mixed signals.
“I- “ She paused. “I don’t know.”
That I would believe. “Neither do I.”
“I don’t know you.” She bit her lip again.
“Hi, my name is Adam Ferrari, but I think you know that. Next to you is Mercer Alexander.” I used my chin to gesture to Merc. “And on your other side is Aiden Barrett, but I don’t need to tell you this information. You already know it, don’t you?”
Ace cleared his throat, not approving of the use of his given name. “Ace.”
She nodded silently.
“What do you want to know?” I prompted.
She had the look that said she wanted to know everything, but was too afraid to ask. That was on her. I’d given her the opportunity. More abuse to that damn lower lip, and I could barely watch the torture anymore. Finally, she released it. “Yesterday, I wanted to leave.”
“Won’t happen.”
“I-I think I know that.” Her finger came up, picking at the orange peel.
“I’m not kicking you out either.”
“Yet,” she said under her breath. “Listen, I don’t want to go back to my father, and I don’t want to be a part of the Accardo family. But I also don’t want to be your wife.”
I stood, not caring any more to continue this conversation. She said what she had to say, and so had I. She knew we weren’t a threat. She knew she was going nowhere. She was only the prisoner she created.
“Well, two out of three isn’t bad.” Mercer tried to lighten the mood. It didn’t work.
“I’m going into the office. Be a good girl and don’t give my men trouble today. Think you can handle that?”
She didn’t answer that one simple question. “In my bag I received last night, my phone was gone. I need it.”
I laughed. “Not going to happen, little Belle.”
“I can’t make a call?”
“I can’t trust you to make a call,” I reminded her. Her eyes flashed, letting me know that not making that phone call was the right decision. She had plans, but so did I, and my plans didn’t involve hunting down my new wife after she made a planned escape. “You can make a call when you earn it. Until then, your cell phone is mine.”
“But—“
I walked out of the room before I could hear further arguments. Had she forgotten that she may be my wife, but she was the blood of my enemy and because of that fact, we could not trust her? I’d give her anything she asked to make her comfortable—starting with clothes that didn’t belong to my friend—but I would not give her an opportunity to scheme.